Nashville, Tennessee: home to country music, singer-songwriters by the million and a few notable power pop acts. Nashville, Tennessee: home to Bazookatooth, a lo-fi hardcore punk trio channelling the rawness of ‘Land Speed Record’ era Husker Du, the fierceness of early Dwarves and a whole world of attitude.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
THE RAREFLOWERS – The Rareflowers EP
New Jersey’s The Rareflowers began life in 2013 when brothers Jimmy and Kane Maraday met drummer Aaron Gollubier and started experimenting with cassette recordings. Five years on, their debut EP carries the kind of DIY spirit that comes from such basement experiments and the songs very much hark back to the 80s with the light neo-psychedelics of what became dubbed the Paisley Underground scene. In other words, the lighter, floatier end of jangle pop.
ANDY K. LELAND – Happy Daze EP
Andy K. Leland first came to the world’s attention as one third of Italian/Icelandic alternative rock band My Cruel Goro. Disbanding after just two (excellent) EP releases, the band decided that having members so widespread wasn’t geographically viable and Andy embarked on a solo career. The first fruits of his solo work are minimal. Fans should not expect the full volume Ash-meets-S*M*A*S*H riffage of his previous band. Instead, ‘Happy Daze’ presents Leland with an acoustic guitar and a few microphones in a lo-fi, introspective set up.
ASTRAL DRIVE – Astral Drive
A musician, songwriter and producer, Phil Thornalley will be familiar to most for his brief stint with The Cure in 1983. His other credits include production work for Natalie Imbruglia and Bryan Adams. While not one of the music world’s most obvious faces, he’s worked within the industry since the late 70s. Taking the idea to create “a lost seventies classic”, his Astral Drive project is a world away from many of the musicians he’s been associated with previously. The material within is rich and densely layered; a work completely immersed in studio techniques. Its eleven songs draw influence from a lot of great long players released in the decade of brown and orange, and occasionally, influence crosses a line into…loving plagiarism, but the results are guaranteed to thrill fans of the style.
FRED ABONG – Homeless EP
Rhode Island musician Fred Abong will be familiar to most due to his past connections with Throwing Muses and Belly, bands related both by blood and a musical family tree. While Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly have remained reasonably prolific since the 90s, Abong chose to slink back into the shadows. In his own words, he’s “always found songwriting a mystery”, but was encouraged by Hersh to capture a few musical ideas on tape in 2018. The resulting EP is thoughtful, minimalist, sometimes even bleak, but is all the better for it.